Cult games.

All the previously mentioned games are pretty well known games once you look after something other then Final Fantasy or Grand Theft Auto.

A real Cult game would be Shin Gouketsuji Ichizoku: Matrimelee, also known as Power Instinct Matrimelee. It's a 2d fighter from the old Power Instinct franchise of Atlus, developed by Noise Factory. The Power Instinct series is long famous (well, not really famous, but no one forgets about it after seeing it) for having the most absurdic character design ever: 80 year old grandmas spitting dental teeth as a projectile, or a buffed up old guy (think Hulk Hogan with grey hair) who turns into a frail grandpa after using his super combo on you which ends with a super fart move. Or the 7 year old jungle boy dude who quit visibly lacks any kind of underpants in his getup. He also turns into an overly muscular antropomorphic dog who which looks like a Cho Aniki reject, after doing a special transformation move.
Well, in Matrimelee, they revisited the game with up to date 2d graphics and HILARIOUS music. The game itself is rather mediocre, but the freaky moves make up for it - and the music is just awesome. You have a girl singing about the torment that her french fries are taken away from her in a restaurant before she could eat them, a song about overclocking a PC, a song about aliens who do not enjoy Earth because people constantly accuse them of abducting, and every track is perfectly synched to the background. Oh and the boss tune is a heavy metal remix of the wedding march. And one of the many special moves in the game includes turning the opponent into a frog or duck or a pig.
Matrimelee is not the most serious competitive fighter, nor is the most beautiful one, but its a perfect example of a "cult" game.

It's also getting a PS2 upgrade with bonus characters and better gfx/audio in may for those interested.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Monkey King

THAT'S the fucking name of the game. The one with the superhero guy in the dog costume, right? God, I've been trying to find that game for forever (well, the Neo Geo one, I was unaware it was part of a whole series), but damned if I could remember what it was called.

Well, the series is called as Gouketsuji Ichizoku. Translates to "Gouketsuji Family". The english versions were renamed to "Power Instinct". Check the story of the first game or some story faq (theres one at gamefaqs i think) to learn why it is "Gouketsuji Family". It had a bunch of episodes, with the 3rd game (Groove on Fight ~Gouketsuji Ichizoku 3~) having a completely different (and pretty crap) cast of characters. The most popular character of the previous games, Hanakouji Clara also had a game of her own on the Saturn (Purikura Daisakusen).
Anyway, the series went on a hiatus after that and was revived on the Neogeo featuring the original cast of characters retouched by Noise Factory, and the game used the Rage of the Dragons engine, albeit heavily modified. It was called a "Shin Gouketsuji Ichizoku Toukon: Matrimelee", Shin meaning News, and Toukon and Matrimelee being combined words (japanese love these abbrevation + combinations). Toukon consists of the kanji meaning war or fight, Kon being written with a kanji that means marriage. So its Marriage Fight or so. or Matrimelee, which is a combination of matrimony (marriage) and Melee (close combat fight). The story of the game has to do something with a prince and princess holding a tournament in the Gouketsuji clan in which the winner gets to marry one of the royals. So the clan members do, some of them for the wealth and power, others because they think the prince is a dreamy kind of guy, etc.

Eh, anyway, the game was never officially translated to Power Instinct Matrimelee, but some dork figured it would be the correct name considering the legacy of the series. MAME lists it as just Matrimelee which is I believe what the american version calls itself. "Calls itself" is a stretch cause they didnt touch the main screen in which Matrimelee is the only non-japanese word. But do avoid the USA version because it has many of the voices completely removed and the awesome music completely ditched.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Kolba

Well, if the Saturn wasn't so hard to emulate...

http://evilboris.sonic-cult.net/SSF/

Monkey King: no doubt, but too many sites contain misinformation or barely understandable, confusing information. It's a pretty unknown series, really.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

If anything, mainstream is not cult. Other then that, I consider games which failed to be widespread even though they are awesome in some aspect, and have a small yet dedicated, almost fanatical fanbase to them.

Keio Flying Squadron comes to mind.

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